A DISTINGUISHED physician recently expressed concern about the long terminal illness of one of his parents. What, our colleague queried, would happen to society if medical advances led most of us to such a demise? Aside from emotional problems affecting the family, would not such a state of sick old people undo the fiscal structure of our health care system? Yes, but is it really necessary that we must end our days old and sick if we alter our current health care system? This question raises one of the most important issues about the future of our society—an issue of human capital and resources as vital and pressing as the problems of energy and economic capital and resources. The medical profession and society's planners for the future must responsibly face the issues raised by this question, and the purpose of this note is to open such a discussion. Let us


Phosphorylation of STAT3 at Serine 727 and its nuclear translocation indicates direct and indirect induction of regeneration program in the rat dorsal root ganglia neurons Kokosova V., Klusakova I., Hradilova-Sviženska I., Dubový P. Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic Phosphorylation of STAT3 on serine 727 (pSTAT3-S727) can modulate transcriptional activity of STAT3 phosphorylated on position of Tyrosine 705 (pSTAT3-Y705). Evidence of pSTAT3-S727 expression was not yet investigated in the dorsal root ganglia (DRG) neurons. Sixteen rats of Wistar line (male, 250-300g) were divided into four groups. The right sciatic nerve of the first group was compressed by triple ligatures (SNC, n=4), the sciatic nerve of the second group was cut and ligated to avoid spontaneous reinnervation (CSNT, n=4), and the sciatic nerve of the third group rats was only exposed without any damage (sham-operation). All rats were left to survive for 7 days. Rats without any surgical intervention were used as a naive control. Animals were perfused by Zamboni fixation and DRG were removed bilaterally in segments L4 and C6-C7. Expression of pSTAT3-S727 was detected by indirect immunohistochemical method and analyzed by image analysis program (NIS Elements, Nikon). Low intensity of pSTAT3-S727 immunofluorescence (IF) was measured in the neuronal nuclei of the lumbar and cervical DRG of the naive rats. Significant increased intensity of IF was found bilaterally in neuronal nuclei of DRG at L4 as well as C6-C7 segments after SNC and CSNT when compared with DRG from naive or sham-operated animals. The present results of pSTAT3-S727 expression in DRG neurons correlate well with our published results of IL-6, IL-6R and pSTAT3-Y705 elevation in both lumbar and cervical segments after unilateral sciatic nerve injury and support the idea of spreading inflammatory signaling alongside the spinal cord. Supported by grant 16-08508S of The Czech Science Foundation.


A medium-size earthquake mainshock ( M w 6.5) occurred on 13 September 2002 (22 h 28 m 31 s UTC) in the Andaman Sea, about 20 km offshore Diglipur, north Andaman Island. The epicenter at 13.087° N and 93.112° E and centroid depth at 31 km were estimated by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). The main shock was a reverse-faulting event. Four digital seismograph stations were established in the Andaman Islands to monitor aftershocks. About 200 aftershocks ( M d ≥1.0) were recorded during a period from 19 September to 7 October 2002. The epicenter map shows a northwest-southeast-trending aftershock cluster in an area of about 140 × 70 km2, which reflects the rupture area of the mainshock. The aftershocks occurred mostly at a depth range of 5-20 km, except one at 38 km. The moment tensor solutions (USGS) of the mainshock and the largest aftershock ( M w 5.8), which occurred 22 hr after the mainshock, revealed consistent reverse faulting. The northeast-dipping northwest-southeast-trending nodal plane, which is comparable with the aftershock trend, is inferred to be the fault plane. The northeast-southwest compressional stress ( P axis), obtained by the fault-plane solutions, is compatible with the north-northeast movement of the Indian plate. The mainshock and the two well-located largest aftershocks, located by the USGS, occurred within the subducted plate. One composite fault-plane solution is obtained for the shallower aftershocks recorded by the temporary network. The solution shows normal faulting with a northeast-southwest tensional ( T ) axis. These aftershocks occurred off the subducted plate at a much shallower depth (<10 km) and are due to local tension in the overriding plate.


ABSTRACT Voice-hearing occurs in clinical and non-clinical samples, and the role of spiritual and cultural frameworks of understanding for percipients has received increased attention. This review aimed to identify and synthesise the existing qualitative literature relating to positive aspects of voice-hearing experiences, and to make recommendations based on these findings for clinical practice and future research. Qualitative papers that included positive aspects of voice-hearing were identified by undertaking a systematic search of six electronic databases, resulting in 22 papers. The quality of each paper was assessed and the meta-ethnographic approach was used to extract and synthesise the data. Six themes were identified relating to voices providing safety and protection, guidance, creating psychological and emotional well-being, providing companionship, facilitating personal growth and development, and connecting hearers to religious or spiritual belief systems. The findings suggest positive aspects of voice-hearing that may have clinical and research implications.


Abstract : The allocation of runway slots at the high-density airports by means of an auction is studied. Previous approaches to slot auctions have not allowed for the interdependency of slot values to the air carriers--a single slot for a landing of an aircraft is likely to be of little value without a corresponding slot for a subsequent take-off of that aircraft. A Slot Exchange Auction is designed, its theoretical properties and practical implementation discussed. It is shown to allow the slot market to reach an efficient equilibrium under competitive conditions. The Airline Management Game is used to create a simulation test of the Slot Exchange Auction and its associated continuous market, the slot exchange. (Author)


Novel bacterial blight (BB) resistance gene(s) for rice was (were) introduced into a cultivated japonica rice variety Oryza sativa (cv. 8411), via somatic hybridization using the wild rice Oryza meyeriana as the donor of the resistance gene(s). Twenty-nine progenies of somatically hybridized plants were obtained. Seven somatically hybridized plants and their parents were used for AFLP (amplified fragment length polymorphism) analysis using 8 primer pairs. Results confirmed that these plants were somatic hybrids containing the characteristic bands of both parents. The morphology of the regenerated rice showed characters of both O. sativa and O. meyeriana. Two somatic hybrids showed highest BB resistance and the other 8 plants showed moderate resistance. The new germplasms with highest resistance have been used in the rice breeding program for the improvement of bacterial blight resistance.


Background: Touch Imprint Cytology, in which tissues are applied to glass slides and stained, has become a useful method for the examination of various types of tumors that need to be studied and diagnosed peri-operatively. Methods: In the present report, we used touch imprinting applied to leaves from the common Mung bean plant (Vigna radiata).Isolated leaves (n=100) were immersed in nano-sized iron particle solutions for 1 hour and the placed between 2 glass slide containing a small amount of aliquots of the iron particle solution plus a specific iron stain Prussian Blue. For comparison, leaves were immersed in deionized water and "sandwiched" between glass slides containing the same medium (n=10). After 12- 24 hour the tissues were peeled off the glass surfaces and examined by optical microscopy. Results: The experimental set, consistently showed outlines of cell types specific for the epidermal and underside of leaves. Specifically, guard cell surrounding stoma were prevalent on the underside of the leaf, whereas trichomes and cell walls of epidermal cells were noted on the upper surface. The control set showed only imprints of the leaf edges. Conclusions: Using iron particles and iron staining solutions, touch imprints of several cell types found on the two leaf surfaces of the Mung bean plant were imaged. Evidence was presented that the lignin in plant cell walls have a strong affinity for iron and that inherent electromagnetic energy derived from metabolism may also contribute to the attraction of  iron particles to imaging leaf cytology. Journal of Nature and Science, 1(1):e32, 2015 .


Crude oil is arguably one of the most complex organic mixture in nature. Therefore, crude oil characterisation requires the use of high resolution and high mass accuracy mass spectrometer such as FT-ICR MS; needed to resolve thousands of ions and assign their elemental formulae. Different heteroatom containing compounds classes are present in crude oil such as N1, S1 and O2 containing compounds. These compounds cause variety of different problems such as N containing compounds cause catalyst deactivation for processes such as hydrodesulfurisation. The choice of the ionisation technique and its polarity is critical to the type of compounds that are observed in a crude oil mass spectrum. Two main studies for crude oil samples are covered in this thesis. The first is crude oil-1, 2 and 3 characterisation using ESI and APPI. The second is structural elucidation of nitrogen containing compounds in crude oil-2. Positive ion ESI FT-ICR MS ionises basic molecules in crude oils. In the literature crude oil samples are dissolved using different ratios of toluene:methanol. The effect of using different solvent composition is often not regarded as important factor to consider. One of the reasons is the addition of ionisation enhancing additive such as formic acid, thought to normalise the ionisation response across different sample solvent composition. However, the solvent composition study data show that different toluene:methanol ratios play a critical role on the ionisation response of nitrogen containing compounds in different crude oils even with the addition of formic acid. Three different ratios were used which are toluene:methanol solvent ratios of 1:9, 3:7 and 6:4 with and without the addition of 0.1% formic acid for the analysis of crude oil-1, 2 and 3. The highest ionisation for N1 containing compounds are achieved through using toluene:methanol ratio of 1:9 with 0.1% formic acid. Further to this the increase of toluene content in the sample solvent decreased the ionisation of N1 containing compounds in the analysed crude oils even with the addition of formic acid. However, the rate of decrease in the ionisation of N1 containing compounds is more significant for crude oil-1 and 2 compared to crude oil-3. Thus, comparing nitrogen containing compounds among different crude oils should be undertaken using the solvent composition, toluene:methanol ratio of 1:9 with 0.1% formic acid. Another aspect for the solvent composition study is that multimer formation is not only concentration driven but as well sample solvent composition dependent. The data showed that multimer formation in N1 DBE versus carbon number plots are reduced with acid addition and methanol content increase in the sample solvent. The use of positive ion ESI allowed the ionisation of basic compounds in crude oil-1, 2 and 3. To ionise non-polar classes such as aromatics and thiophene containing compounds in crude oil-1, 2 and 3 positive ion APPI is used. Aromatics and thiophene were the most abundant ions in crude oil-1, 2 and 3 mass spectra. No significant difference in ion intensities for these ions were observed for crude oil-1, 2 and 3 mass spectra. However, the use of negative ion APPI showed major differences in the ions intensities of crude oil-1, 2 and 3 regarding HC, HC-R, N1, S1 and S1-R classes. Further, comparable data for the O2 class were obtained using negative ion ESI and APPI Orbitrap MS for crude oil-1, 2 and 3. Thus, negative ion APPI Orbitrap MS can be used to compare the O2 class relative abundance among different crude oils. Further to the characterisation study, structural elucidation of nitrogen containing compounds in crude oil-2 using positive ion ESI FT-ICR MS/MS was undertaken. Understanding the chemical structure might have applications in designing more effective catalysts for HDN process. At first a method development approach was undertaken to reduce the analysis time to 4.5 min and increase detection of low m/z low intensity fragment ions. This aim was achieved through increasing the ion accumulation time from 0.05 s to 5 s with averaging 40 spectra. Different N1 precursor ions were isolated at different DBE values and degree of alkylation. A collision energy of 60 V was required to observe characteristic fragment ions such as N expulsion for N1 precursor ion with DBE value of 13.5. While for N1 precursor ion at DBE value of 6.5 a CE 40 V was enough to observe characteristic fragment ions. However, different approach was used for N1 precursor ion with low DBE values, isolating the precursor ion with the lowest degree of alkylation. This approach was essential to observe N expulsion fragment ions for N1 precursor ion with DBE value of 6.5. The core aromatic structure for N1 precursor ions from DBE values of 3.5 to 10.5 were suggested. This suggestion was based on N expulsion fragment ion and the dealkylated fragment ion. Furthermore, N expulsion from the aromatic ring supports the postulation that the nitrogen in the various precursor ions discussed is pyridinic. This was further confirmed for N1 precursor ion with DBE value of 6.5 using a model compound, 2-butlyquinoline.


The chemistry of large carbon-containing molecules in space is widely researched with notable advances including understanding of the aromatic infrared emission features in terms of their general origin in polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules, identification of the fullerenes C60 and C70 as the largest molecules detected in the interstellar medium, and knowledge of the structure and composition of various solid-state interstellar grains. However, there remain major challenges.
The work described in this Thesis addresses some longstanding, unanswered questions in astrochemistry, such as the origin of variation in the profiles of the aromatic infrared bands, the route to formation of C60, and the role of astrophysical grains in the reactions of carbon-containing species. This research was carried out using a range of laboratory and computational techniques, in combination with astronomical data, yielding new results that can be compared with existing work to find solutions to these problems.
The varying profile of the 11.2 μm aromatic infrared emission band within two objects, NGC 7023 and the Red Rectangle, is investigated. The feature's changing spectral shape, which depends on the position within the object, is interpreted in terms of variation in the distribution of molecular masses of the PAHs that give rise to the feature. This was achieved using a model that fits astronomical data which was obtained with the instrument MICHELLE on the UKIRT telescope in Hawaii and the Spitzer satellite observatory. Based on the calculated emission features of four neutral PAHs that are taken to represent 'low-mass' (fewer than 50 C atoms) or 'high-mass' (more than 50 C atoms), it is found that, with increasing distance from the star, there is an increase in the proportion of low-mass PAHs in NGC 7023, in good agreement with less specific previous studies that have been carried out using other approaches. The modelling results for the Red Rectangle indicate that the mass distribution does not change significantly with offset, although evidence from other sources appears in part to contradict this conclusion.
A laboratory investigation is detailed in which formation of C60 from PAH precursors is explored. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionisation time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) are used to irradiate, using the electron beam (e-beam) in TEM and the UV laser in MALDI-TOF MS, samples of PAH molecules and to monitor the products of any resulting transformations within the samples. It is found that under both e-beam and UV irradiation, PAH molecules lose one or more H atoms and form larger PAH 'oligomers'. Based on the MALDI-TOF MS results, specific chemical structures of these oligomers are proposed, and it is found that the precursor molecules coronene and perylene give rise to formation of C60. A mechanism is given for this process, in which an oligomer containing 60 carbon atoms or more is formed, and then 'shrinks' via loss of H atoms, C-C bond formation, and Stone-Wales rearrangements. Important structural features required for these mechanisms, namely the presence of 'bay' and 'fjord' carbon edge sites, are discussed in an astrophysical context. An experimental methodology was designed and implemented to use TEM and MALDI-TOF MS in conjunction with each other, in which a specific area of a PAH sample is viewed using low-dose TEM, is then irradiated using the UV laser in MALDI-TOF MS, and finally is viewed a second time using TEM to observe the effects of the UV irradiation.
Experiments were carried out to investigate reactions of acetylene and CO in the presence of astrophysically relevant grains. It was found that CO undergoes a disproportionation reaction over olivine grains, forming gaseous CO2 and depositing solid-state carbon on the grain surface; this has implications for the formation of other carbonaceous species such as PAHs and even carbon nanotubes. The formation of PAHs from acetylene gas over grains of SiC is reported, in addition to the inhibiting impact of CO when mixed with acetylene. In one experiment olivine samples were irradiated by the e-beam in TEM, and decomposition of the olivine structure was seen to occur, resulting in the formation of metallic nanoparticles. This behaviour is discussed in terms of its likely occurrence in astrophysical environments such as the Red Rectangle, and its potential for catalysis that results from reactions of molecules on the metal nanoparticle surface.


This work allowed the comparison of the metabolic profiles of the most important cyanobacteria species in southern perialpine lakes, namely Aphanizomenon flos-aquae , Dolichospermum lemmermannii, Microcystis aeruginosa, Planktothrix rubescens , and Tychonema bourrellyi. Monospecific cultures were obtained from samples of 3 different natural lakes (Garda, Idro, and Caldonazzo). LC-MS/MS analyses were conducted on strains. A first set of experiments was aimed at assessing the presence of the best known toxins (microcystins, nodularins, (homo)anatoxin-a, cylindrospermopsins, paralytic shellfish poisons) in the cultures. Results of this screening study revealed that M. aeruginosa and P. rubescens produced toxic peptides (microcystins), T. bourrellyi produced toxic alkaloids (anatoxin-a and possibly some paralytic shellfish toxins), Aph. flos-aquae and D. lemmermannii did not produce any of the analyzed toxins. M. aeruginosa and P. rubescens showed typical microcystin production with LR form dominant in the former, and RRdm form dominant in the latter. A second set of experiments was aimed at comparing the capability of the 5 cyanobacterial species to produce peptidic secondary metabolites. For this purpose, an untargeted peptidomic analysis was conducted on the strains. The analysis allowed revealing globally 328 metabolites, spanning in a mass range between 400 and 2000 Da. The majority of compounds with masses in the 500-1200 Da range (corresponding to the majority of peptidic secondary metabolites) resulted to be produced by M. aeruginosa and P. rubescens strains, thus indicating a higher ability of these species to produce non-ribosomal peptides compared to the others. 27 metabolites out of 328 could be putatively assigned to specific classes of compounds: microcystins, aeruginosins and anabaenopeptins were the most represented classes of compounds, and were mostly found in M. aeruginosa and P. rubescens strains.


Solutions using information technology is an innovative way to manage the information hospice patients in hospitals in Panama. The application of techniques of text mining for the domain of medicine, especially information from electronic health records of patients in palliative care is one of the most recent and promising research areas for the analysis of textual data. Text mining is based on new knowledge extraction from unstructured natural language data. We may also create ontologies to describe the terminology and knowledge in a given domain. In an ontology, conceptualization of a domain that may be general or specific formalized. Knowledge can be used for decision making by health specialists or can help in research topics for improving the health system.


SUMMARY
In today's competitive environment, it is extremely difficult to successfully produce high quality, low cost products without considering a satisfactory set of suppliers. A useful approach to ensure the reliability of a manufacturer's supply stream is to follow a multiple sourcing policy. Mathematical programming techniques lend themselves nicely by providing optimal solutions to several instances of the problem. However, a recent review of supply selection methods (Weber et al. 1991) identified very few articles that have proposed mathematical programming techniques to analyze supplier selection decisions. Given the economic importance and inherent complexity associated with the supplier selection problem, this article proposes a mixed integer programming approach to solve the supplier selection program. The modelSUPPSEL (Supplier Selection) simultaneously decides the set of suppliers and order quantity allocations among them.


Vertically stacked transistors are being explored as potential options for future technologies beyond GAA Nanosheet technology. In this paper, we report our investigation of challenges and opportunities for vertically stacked transistors, with a focus on block level scaling and device performance consideration. At the standard cell level, our DTCO innovation of splitting the power rails can free up a metal track for signal routing. Implementing two circuit rows for complex cells also increases available tracks. At the block level, we performed the routing study through PnR and overcome the shortage of pin access by DTCO innovations, achieving 0.55x area scaling vs non-stack technology. For device design, choices of device structures and materials for each layer are carefully evaluated. SiGe FinFET(p) on Nanosheet(n) is identified as a strong candidate for vertically stacked device architecture. MOL resistance with one-sided power rail is found to be a bottleneck limiting the device performance. Double-sided power rail (DSPR) is introduced for the first time in this work to effectively address the MOL resistance for stacked transistors.


In order to attract pedestrians to travel with public transport instead of private cars, the layout of interchange stations is important and should be designed in an effective way. Microscopic simulation of pedestrians can be used to evaluate different layout scenarios or a future increase in flow. The simulation software Viswalk was investigated, where the movements of pedestrians are based on a social force model,. The purpose of this thesis was to investigate simulated walking speeds for different flow levels and to investigate the effects of dividing pedestrians into types with different desired speeds. The aim was to find a desired speed distribution that can be used for different flow levels. Field studies have been performed to collect pedestrian traffic data with a video camera at Stockholm Central Station. Two disjoint flow levels were identified and used to investigate if the same desired speed distribution could be used for different flow levels. The average observed walking speed was 1.33 metres per second at the low flow level and 1.25 metres per second at the high flow level. The error was 4.5 percent between the average observed walking speed and the average simulated walking speed when the optimal desired speed distribution at the low flow level was used at the high flow level. Effects of using different desired speed distributions for different pedestrian types have also been investigated. The error between the average of the observed and the simulated walking speeds varies between 2.3 and 4.1 percent when dividing pedestrians into different types when the optimal desired speed distributions at the low flow level are used at the high flow level. A sensitivity analysis of some parameters of the social force model in Viswalk has also been performed. Several adjustments of the parameters show that some parameters had great impact of the simulated walking speeds. The final conclusion is that the parameter configuration and how the pedestrians are divided into different types affect the average simulated walking speed.


The purpose of this study was to examine how exercise level, exercise motives, and barriers changed from the baseline phase to the follow-up phase after a behavioural and cognitive intervention aimed at increasing exercise. Seventy-five members of our university community (43 subjects in the control group and 32 in the experimental group), all of whom received cognitive feedback, agreed to complete the baseline phase. Only the experimental group received behavioural feedback and a free-access gym ticket with personal training in order to facilitate their adherence to exercise. The results suggest that a combination of behavioural and psychological techniques is an efficient strategy for increasing exercise level. In addition, the results showed that extrinsic motivation predominates the early stages of change-of-exercise behaviour, and that intrinsic motivation is important for progression towards maintenance. Subjects who decreased their exercise level increased their extrinsic exercise motivation and subjects who increased their exercise level decreased the barriers related to intrinsic motivation. These findings indicate that, in order to facilitate exercise adherence, feedback about motives for undertaking exercise is needed, combined with advice about how to improve physical condition. This combination could help eliminate certain barriers that hinder engaging in an active and healthy life-style.


The aim of this literature study is to investigate the added value of diffusion weighted MR imaging (DW-MRI) for the radiotherapy treatment of brain tumors. DW-MRI provides pathological information based on the mobility of water molecules. Because this technique provides different information than conventional anatomical MRI, it could be of added value in tasks where conventional MRI alone is not sufficient enough. DW-MRI can be used in different stages in the radiotherapy treatment process of brain tumors. This literature study discusses the added value of DW-MRI for delineation, prediction of therapy response and survival, and the discrimination between tumor recurrence and radiation injury. The literature shows a large variety of DW-MRI based measures to use in the different stages of therapy. DW-MRI could lead to more individual approaches and is able to predict therapy response in an early stage. However, DW-MRI is still in a exploratory stage and the literature does not only show consensus. This review will give an overview of recent results obtained with DW-MRI in the radiotherapy treatment process of brain tumors and will be concluded with a critical review of the added value of this advanced MR technique.


The objective of this study was to produce arrowroot starch flakes with dumbo catfish (Clarias gariepinus) flour, as a rich energy, protein, and mineral food for elderly. Design of this study was complete randomized design with four formulas and each combination was replicated two times. A selected formula was determined based on semi trained panelists preference. Acceptance of selected flakes formula was examined by elderly using hedonic test. Flakes by addition of 33.00% of dumbo catfish flour was the selected formula. The chemical properties for selected flakes were as follows 4.00% of water, 4.84% ash, 16.90% protein, 5.21% fat, 69.06% carbohydrate, 14.48% calcium, and 8.61% phosphor. The selected flakes contain 391 kcals energy per 100 g. The selected flakes had contributed more than 20.00% of energy, protein, calcium, and phosphor for elderly people so it can be claimed as a food product rich in energy, protein and minerals.


Summary
Vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) grown in mouse embryo cells pre-infected with murine sarcoma virus or in chicken cells pre-infected with avian myeloblastosis virus contains, in contrast to virus grown in corresponding control cells, a proportion of virus resistant to antiserum against VSV. Infectivity of this virus fraction can specifically be neutralized with antiserum against murine leukaemia virus (MLV) and avian myeloblastosis virus (AMV), respectively. In addition to neutralization specificity, the particles resistant to anti-VSV serum show also host-range and interference specificity corresponding to the leukosis virus involved. These viruses do not breed true as recombinants, but virus isolated from their plaques is indistinguishable from original VSV. All these facts are consistent with the explanation that there are VSV(MLV) and VSV(AMV) pseudotype particles.
The ts 45 (complementation group V) mutant of VSV was apparently complemented by AMV at the restrictive temperature, whereas two other mutants belonging to groups I and III were not: the leukosis virus apparently exerts a helper effect for conditionally defective VSV.


This paper explores self-plagiarism in three different articles that reported results of the same research project on reading in a foreign language. This article follows the qualitative research method and an exploratory case study was used. Results support that both inadequate paraphrasing and adequate paraphrasing were given. Regarding inadequate paraphrasing some similar words and ideas were found. On the other hand, using different authors in a specific idea, having different numbers of words in a common issue, and being versatile to present information might lead to adequate paraphrasing. Conclusions suggest that a dialog between editors and authors must be given in order to clear self-plagiarism up. Finally, conclusions also suggest that editors should consider the inclusion of some similar information in articles written by the same author or the same research members


Light emitting diode (LED) has been largely used in industry of consumer electronics such as cell-phones, PDAs, and computers. Since all light sources convert electric power into radiant energy and heat, LED also does the same with an increase of its power. Generally, it only converts 15~25% of electric power into visible light; the rest of the power, 75~85%, is converted into heat. This excess heat should be conducted away from the LED die to circuit boards or heat sinks since heat affects directly performance of the LED. The piled heat in LED products brings color shift and reduces light output very rapidly. Furthermore, the lifecycle of LED products shorten if the heat problem continues. In order to prevent LED products from these negative effects, effective thermal resistance paths need to be achieved so that LED products let the heat conduct from the LED to the outside such as printed circuit board. In this research, optimization studies on thermal-via is to be performed. The 1W and 3W LED assembled printed circuit board with 16 different via designs is set up to measure its temperature for 4 hours in a real time. It was obtained by this work that the optimized thermal via was very effective to dissipate the heat from the LED.


Dual learning has attracted much attention in machine learning, computer vision and natural language processing communities. The core idea of dual learning is to leverage the duality between the primal task (mapping from domain X to domain Y) and dual task (mapping from domain Y to X ) to boost the performances of both tasks. Existing dual learning framework forms a system with two agents (one primal model and one dual model) to utilize such duality. In this paper, we extend this framework by introducing multiple primal and dual models, and propose the multi-agent dual learning framework. Experiments on neural machine translation and image translation tasks demonstrate the effectiveness of the new framework. In particular, we set a new record on IWSLT 2014 German-to-English translation with a 35.44 BLEU score, achieve a 31.03 BLEU score on WMT 2014 English-toGerman translation with over 2.6 BLEU improvement over the strong Transformer baseline, and set a new record of 49.61 BLEU score on the recent WMT 2018 English-to-German translation.


Current and lifetime psychiatric diagnoses were compared in 229 female patients seeking treatment for current episodes of anorexia nervosa (N = 41), bulimia nervosa (N = 98) and mixed anorexia nervosa and Schizophrenia-Lifetime Version, which was modified to include a section for DSM-III-R eating disorders, the Longitudinal Interval Follow-up Evaluation, and the Structured Interview for DSM-III Personality Disorders. Seventy-three percent of the anorexia nervosa subjects, 60% of the bulimia nervosa subjects, and 82% of the mixed anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa subjects had a current comorbid Axis I diagnosis. Major depression was the most commonly diagnosed comorbid disorder. Low rates of alcohol and substances abuse disorder were diagnosed, and personality disorder occurred in a minority of the sample. The subjects with mixed disorder manifested a higher lifetime prevalence of kleptomania than either the anorexics or the bulimics. High levels of comorbidity were noted across the eating disorder samples. Mixed disorder subjects manifested the most comorbid psychopathology and especially warrant further study.


There is a bidirectional relation between one's executive functioning abilities and problem solving skills as they are both based on self-control. "Hot" and "cold" executive functions account for individuals' cognitive control and emotional regulation. In addition, problem solving is tied to metacognitive awareness processes, necessary for applying executive function skills in goal setting and decision making situations. Therefore, individuals' overall cognitive flexibility and emotional regulation can promote the quality, quantity and speed of decision-making processes, such as adaptable and creative information processing as well as efficiency in setting and prioritizing goals. Moreover, individuals with ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Oppositional Defiant Disorder and individuals with other comorbid states, such as older adults, individuals with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) can counterbalance their cognitive control deficits through enhancing their problem solving skills. In addition, an advanced research in the bidirectional relation between executive function and problem solving skills could develop a comprehensive methodology for training and assessing self-regulatory processes.


Cancer-induced cachexia is a complex and poorly understood life-threatening syndrome that is characterized by progressive weight loss due to metabolic alterations, depletion of lipid stores, and severe loss of skeletal muscle protein. Gaining the ability to noninvasively image the presence or onset of cachexia is important to better treat this condition, to improve the design and optimization of therapeutic strategies, and to detect the responses to such treatments. In this study, we employed noninvasive magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) and [(18)F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose ((18)FDG) positron emission tomography (PET) to identify metabolic signatures typical of cachectic tumors, using this information to analyze the types and extents of metabolic changes induced by the onset of cachexia in normal tissues. Cachexia was confirmed by weight loss as well as analyses of muscle tissue and serum. In vivo, cachexia-inducing murine adenocarcinoma (MAC)16 tumors were characterized by higher total choline (tCho) and higher (18)FDG uptake than histologically similar noncachectic MAC13 tumors. A profound depletion of the lipid signal was observed in normal tissue of MAC16 tumor-bearing mice but not within the tumor tissue itself. High-resolution (1)H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) confirmed the high tCho level observed in cachectic tumors that occurred because of an increase of free choline and phosphocholine. Higher succinate and lower creatine levels were also detected in cachectic tumors. Taken together, these findings enhance our understanding of the effect of cancer on host organs and tissues as well as promote the development of noninvasive biomarkers for the presence of cachexia and identification of new therapeutic targets.


Diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness among the working population in the developed world. The prevalence of diabetic retinopathy increases with duration of diabetes, and nearly 100 percent of patients with type I diabetes and more than 60 percent of those with type II have some signs of diabetic retinopathy after 20 years.A number of approaches have proved to be useful in the treatment of diabetic retinopathy, such as laser photocoagulation and tight systemic control of blood glucose, lipids, cholesterol and blood pressure. Unfortunately, in many patients the retinopathy progresses in spite of the best efforts on the part of the patient and of the ophthalmologist. Many such eyes may be helped by vitrectomy surgery, however.About 5 percent of patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy, as well as carefully selected patients with diabetic maculopathy, require pars plana vitrectomy, despite ostensibly adequate laser treatment and good glycemic and hypertensive control. This article reviews the current indications for vitreous surgery in severe diabetic retinopathy and strategies and techniques employed to minimize surgical complications.


A statistical method for comparing matrices of genetic variation and covariation between groups (e.g., species, populations, a single population grown in distinct environments) is proposed. This maximum‐likelihood method provides a test of the overall null hypothesis that two covariance component matrices are identical. Moreover, when the overall null hypothesis is rejected, the method provides a framework for isolating the particular components that differ significantly between the groups. Simulation studies reveal that discouragingly large experiments are necessary to obtain acceptable power for comparing genetic covariance component matrices. For example, even in cases of a single trait measured on 900 individuals in a nested design of 100 sires and three dams per sire in each population, the power was only about 0.5 when additive genetic variance differed by a factor of 2.5. Nevertheless, this flexible method makes valid comparison of covariance component matrices possible.


Anesthesiologists provide perioperative management of patients. In order to best care for these patients, adequate time must be provided to prepare for the surgical case and to optimize workup of the patients undergoing surgery. At our hospital, faculty anesthesiologists do not receive notification of their assigned cases until the actual day of surgery. We initiated a trial protocol which informed faculty of their assigned cases via email the evening before the case. Our data shows that anesthesiologists feel more prepared, more satisfied and better equipped to care for their patients when provided this information the day before a scheduled case. INTRODUCTION The Memorial Herman Hospital at the Texas Medical Center stands as the busiest trauma center in the United States. Each year, the hospital averages 14,937 inpatient and 3,972 outpatient surgeries.1 This high volume of surgeries results in a robust UT Health anesthesiology department. Despite the large case-load, there has never been an organized system of informing faculty of their next-day operating room assignment and case type. Historically, faculty anesthesiologists and/or anesthesiology assistants (AAs) are informed of their next-day cases by the residents and/or AAstudents who are assigned to work with them the next day. Residents working in the operating room review a paper copy of the schedule when it is distributed in the late afternoon the day before. However, in the event that faculty are staffing cases by themselves, there is no system for which they can check their assignments for the next day unless they are physically in the operating room at the hospital. As a result, faculty may feel unprepared to safely provide care for the acutely sick patients who routinely undergo surgeries at Memorial Herman. In order to help faculty feel more prepared to safely provide perioperative management of these patients, the authors have developed the Anesthesia Care Early Notification System. We hypothesized that attending anesthesiologists who receive an email notification indicating their operative room assignment, presence/absence of a resident/anesthetist, surgeon and first case type would feel more prepared to safely care for patients than without such a system. METHODS The study population included faculty anesthesiologists who staff the Memorial Hermann Main Operating Room Suite (83 anesthesiologists). This specifically excluded the Heart and Vascular Institute and Pediatric Cardiothoracic Operating Room. This project occurred in 3 phases. IRB approval was obtained, and at no time was protected health information distributed or stored. There was no active clinical component to this protocol. During phase 1, a survey asking the questions in appendix 1 was emailed to the entire department faculty. This survey was administered via SurveyMonkey.com. Please see appendix 1 for the questions asked and the formatting to be seen by the participating faculty. 5 days were given for faculty to respond to the survey. After the completion of phase 1, an email listing of the next day's OR schedule was sent to the faculty. The information was generated from the list submitted to the department of anesthesiology from Memorial Hermann Hospital on a daily basis (already in progress). Only HIPPA Compliance trained personnel in the department of anesthesiology were Does an Anesthesia Case Early Notification System Affect the Feelings of Preparedness of Anesthesiology Providers?A Short Report 2 of 6 permitted to handle this information. They used the schedule to generate the form to be emailed to the faculty. This schedule was sent daily before 5pm (reflecting the next day's OR assignment) for 3 weeks. At the completion of phase II, a survey asking the questions in appendix one was emailed to the entire department faculty. This survey was administered via SurveyMonkey.com. Please see appendix 1 for the questions asked and the formatting seen by the participating faculty. 5 days were given for faculty to respond to the survey. The data was then compiled and analyzed by the departmental statistician. RESULTS In order to maintain anonymity of the participants, no identifying data was obtained of the subjects. As a result, the data could not be treated as paired data. The descriptive statistics are detailed in Figure 1 -10. For attending anesthesiologists, there is an increase in percentage among those that strongly agree and agree that they generally feel informed about the operative cases that they will be assigned to staff the following day when the ACENS protocol was in place. There is also an improvement in percentages that report strongly agree and agree that they feel well prepared to care for their operative patients the night before their scheduled date to staff the operating room. DISCUSSION: Our data does shows an improvement in how anesthesiology providers feel prepared to care for their patients by obtaining information about their cases at least 12 hours in advance. Advance notice allows providers to improve preparation and optimize workup and setup before providing perioperative management of their patients. Following the implementation at Herman Memorial Hospital, ACENS protocol has now been integrated into the routine operational structure of the department of anesthesiology for over 13 months. Utilization of an ACENS-like system could have tangible benefits towards improved physician satisfaction, a metric commonly measured in hospitals. Furthermore, notification of the type and scope of surgical case planned improves patient safety based on the data in our survey. CONCLUSION: An anesthesia early case notification system likely results in improved physician satisfaction in an academic setting. Further prospective studies formally assessing actual physician satisfaction scores may be warranted. APPENDIX Appendix One Attending Anesthesiologist questions: Q1: I am an attending anesthesiologist in the Memorial Hermann Operating Rooms. Q2: I staff the Memorial Hermann ORs Q3: I generally feel informed about the operative cases that I will be assigned to staff the following day. Q4: I feel well prepared to care for my operative patients the night before my scheduled date to staff the operating room. Q5: My case assignment for the next day is easily available. Q6: I feel well prepared for my cases for the next day when I do not have a colleague or student informing me the night before of my OR assignment. Q7: My knowledge of the next day's assignment dependent on if I am post-call/on vacation or not (in other words, whether or not you are in the hospital the day before). Q8: I regularly check my email on my wireless phone.


In The New Elizabethan Age: Culture, Society and National Identity after World War II, editors Irene Morra and Rob Gossedge bring together contributors to explore the emergence of a cultural 'new Elizabethanism' following the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at the start of the 1950s, which drew upon the historical example of the Elizabethans to express and channel a sense of dynamic modernity without relinquishing reverence for the past. While finding the central thesis of a 'new Elizabethanism' somewhat overdetermined across the essays, this is a stimulating and valuable collection that positions 1950s Britain as a nation in vigorous dialogue with itself over both its history and its future, writes Peter Webster.


The primary objective of the present trial was to study if tactile massage (TM) was equivalent to nurse led sleep counseling (SC) in the treatment of primary insomnia. In the randomized controlled design in total 30 women (aged 18-65 years) was allocated to one of three groups; TM, SC or a control group. Treatment with TM was administered twice a week for six weeks, SC once a week for six weeks. Subjective sleep quality (Karolinska sleep diary) during was assessed during baseline (week 0) until week 6.and at subsequent follow up at week 7, and 13. Objective sleep quality (Polysomnography) and parameters of subjective health (SF-36, Shirom-Melamed Burnout Questionnaire) and several physiological markers of stress (Cortisol, HbA1c, Blood Pressure) was assessed at baseline and subsequent follow up. Data analysis shall be analyzed with R-ANOVA methodology. Data collection will be completed by April 2010 and preliminary findings will be presented at ICCMR 2010. Primary insomnia a d other sleep disorders are a major public health problem worldwide. Sleep has an important role in the balance act between health and disease. Insufficient sleep and restitution is acknowledged as a factor contributing cardiovascular disease and lethal injury. Tactile stimulation stimulates the release of hormones, for example oxytocin which is important for the circadian homeostasis, and also related to the parasympathetic nervous system. Treatment of sleep disorders with Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), is so far the only long-term evidence based treatment for primary insomnia. Within regular health care there is no sustainable treatment for people with primary insomnia, hypnotic drugs only has short term effects and several side effects. CBT shows promising results but the availability of therapists are scarce. Nurse led SC or/and TM may have a role in the treatment of people with sleep disorders through its low-tech/low-cost design and an absence of side effects.


Leukemia is a worldwide disease. In this paper we demonstrate that it is possible to build an automated, efficient and rapid leukemia diagnosis system. We demonstrate that it is possible to improve the precision of current techniques from the literature using the description power of well-known Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). We extract features from a blood smear image using pre-trained CNNs in order to obtain an unique image description. Many feature selection techniques were evaluated and we chose PCA to select the features that are in the final descriptor. To classify the images on healthy and pathological we created an ensemble of classifiers with three individual classification algorithms (Support Vector Machine, Multilayer Perceptron and Random Forest). In the tests we obtained an accuracy rate of 100%. Besides the high accuracy rate, the tests showed that our approach requires less processing time than the methods analyzed in this paper, considering the fact that our approach does not use segmentation to obtain specific cell regions from the blood smear image.


The convergence of different types of networks into a common data center infrastructure poses a superset challenge on the part of the underlying component technology. IP networks are feature-rich, storage networks are lossless with controlled topologies, and transaction networks are low-latency with low jitter, parallel multicast. A successful Converged Enhanced Ethernet (CEE) switch should pass the domain specific network tests, and demonstrate these disparate capabilities at the same time, while maintaining traffic separation. The FocalPoint FM4000 Ethernet switch chip was designed and architected both to provide a rich Ethernet feature set and maintain the highest performance around corner cases. It achieves this through the use of a full-rate shared memory, parallel multicasting, switch architecture along with deeply pipelined frame processing. It implements traditional Ethernet, layer-3/4, and the new CEE features. In this, paper we provide an extensive performance evaluation of the FocalPoint FM4000 chip with a number of individual performance tests including, port-to-port line rate and latency, fairness of flow control under N-to-1 hot-spot, and multicast line rate and latency tests. Finally, we explore the convergence by measuring the simultaneous performance of prioritized, flow-controlled unicast traffic and provisioned multicast traffic against the backdrop of full-rate best effort stressing traffic. The experimental results show that the FocalPoint FM4000 switch provides an impressive flow-through latency of only 300 nanoseconds, which is insensitive to the packet size. The FM4000 delivers optimal performance under hot-spot communication with a degree of fairness above 98\%, and provides an upper bound for latency in prioritized multicast, ranging from 1.2 to 4.3 microseconds, depending on the average size of the background best-effort traffic. A direct comparison with non-prioritized multicasts, shows a performance speedup ranging from 29 to 38 times.


Healthcare insurance fraud has caused billions of dollars in losses in public healthcare funds around the world. In particular, healthcare insurance fraud in chronic diseases is especially rampant. Understanding disease progression can help investigators detect healthcare insurance frauds early on. Existing disease progression methods often ignore complex relations, such as the time-gap and pattern of disease occurrence. They also do not take into account the different medication stages of the same chronic disease, which is of great help when conducting healthcare insurance fraud detection and reducing healthcare costs. In this paper, we propose a heterogeneous network-based chronic disease progression mining method to improve the current understanding on the progression of chronic diseases, including orphan diseases. The method also considers the different medication stages of the same chronic disease. Extensive experiments show that our method can outperform the existing methods by 20% in terms of F-measure.


There is a strong need for powerful unified statistical methods for discovering underlying genetic architecture of complex traits with the assistance of omics information. In this paper, two methods aiming to detect novel association between the human genome and complex traits using intermediate omics data are developed based on statistical mediation modeling. We demonstrate theoretically that given proper mediators, the proposed statistical mediation models have better power than genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to detect associations missed in standard GWAS that ignore the mediators. For each ofthe modeling methods in this paper, an empirical example is given, where the association between a SNP and BMI missed by standard GWAS can be discovered by mediation analysis.


Several models of automata are available that operate unranked trees. Two well-known examples are the stepwise unranked tree automaton (suta) and the parallel unranked tree automaton (puta). By adding a weight, taken from some semiring, to every transition we generalise these two qualitative automata models to quantitative models, thereby obtaining weighted stepwise unranked tree automata (wsuta) and weighted parallel unranked tree automata (wputa); the qualitative automata models are reobtained by choosing the BOOLEAN semiring. The weighted versions have applications in natural language processing, XML-based data management and quantitative information retrieval. We address the minimisation problem of wsuta and wputa by using (forward and backward) bisimulations and we prove the following results: (1) for every wsuta an equivalent forward (resp. backward) bisimulation minimal wsuta can be computed in time O(mn) where n is the number of states and m is the number of transitions of the given wsuta; (2) the same result is proved for wputa instead of wsuta; (3) if the semiring is additive cancellative or the BOOLEAN semiring, then the bound can be improved to O(mlog n) for both wsuta and wputa; (4) for every deterministic puta we can compute a minimal equivalent deterministic puta in time O(mlog n); (5) the automata models wsuta, wputa, and weighted unranked tree automaton have the same computational power.


This study investigates pathways by which the eicosanoid precursor pools in the platelets, bone marrow and the gastrointestinal (GI) mucosa are acquired and regulated, and in this context some aspects on the interaction between triglyceride (TG)-rich lipoproteins and platelets. 1. Platelets take up chylomicrons (CM) in vitro, the main part being sequestered in open canalicular system and not degraded, but do not exhibit any receptor mediated uptake and degradation of chylomicron remnants (CMR). Although CM, CMR and Intralipid affect agonist-induced platelet aggregation in vitro, CMs and CMRs are not an arachidonic acid (AA) source for platelets. The binding of prothrombin and protein S to postprandial TG-rich lipoproteins increased more after a meal rich in saturated fat than after a linoleate (LA) rich meal, which might increase platelet induced activation of these factors. 2. In rats plasma 2-arachidonyl-lysophosphatidylcholine (2-AA-LPC) supplies AA to several extrahepatic tissues, the quantitative importance being large in case of the small intestine. In guinea pigs, local desaturation-elongation of LA taken up as plasma free fatty acids (LA-FFA) is a major AA source. Bone marrow cells including megakaryocytes and the mucosa of GI tract produce much more AA than is exported from the liver. Therefore, we suggest that uptake and local interconversion of plasma LA-FFA and uptake of plasma 2-AA-LPC are two important alternative pathways for the supply of AA to extrahepatic tissues. Since platelets do not convert LA to d6-desaturase products, it is suggested that the build up of AA pools may be an integral part of the platelet formation in the bone marrow. 3. Fasting increases the rate of uptake and interconversion of plasma LA-FFA in both liver and extrahepatic tissues. The increase of plasma FFA concentration enhances the tissue uptake and this is linked to an increased rate of local interconversion of plasma LA-FFA. The concentration and composition of the plasma FFA pool as well as the regulation of desaturases activity in extrahepatic tissues during fasting is important determinants of eicosanoid precursor formation. 4. Our results challenge the common view that the liver is the main site of formation of AA which is then transported to other tissues mainly by lipoproteins. Our animal model can be used to study the rates of fatty acid desaturation and acylation in relation to enzyme activities and substrate availability in vivo. (Less)


A retrospective five year review of 75 patients hospitalised in Middlemore Hospital, Auckland, who underwent temporal artery biopsy shows that the procedure was performed without complications and that the result could significantly alter patient management. Patients biopsied were all 50 years or older, predominantly female (77%) and caucasian (90%). Biopsies were positive in 14 patients (18.7%). Polymyalgia was present in 64% in both biopsy positive and negative groups. Visual disturbance was more frequent in the biopsy positive group (43% versus 21%) but not statistically significant. Jaw claudication and abnormalities of the temporal artery on examination were significantly more frequent in the biopsy positive group. Final diagnoses included 16 with temporal inflammatory polyarthritis, and 4 with malignant disease. As a result of a negative biopsy corticosteroids were stopped in 13 patients, reduced in dose in 5 patients, and begun in low dose in 7 patients.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate prospectively long-term quality of life and functional outcome after restorative proctocolectomy (RPC) with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis, and to evaluate and validate a novel quality-of-life indicator in this group of patients.

SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA
Restorative proctocolectomy with ileal pouch-anal anastomosis is now the preferred option when total proctocolectomy is required for ulcerative colitis or familial adenomatous polyposis, but long-term data on functional outcome and quality of life after the procedure are lacking.

METHODS
Patients (n = 977) who underwent RPC with stapled anastomosis for colitis or polyposis coli and who were followed for > or =12 months were included. Quality of life, fecal incontinence, and satisfaction with surgery were prospectively evaluated by structured interview or questionnaire for 1 to 12 years after surgery (median 5.0). Quality of life was scored using the Cleveland Global Quality of Life (CGQL) instrument (Fazio Score). This is a novel score developed over the past 15 years by the senior author. Quality of life was also evaluated in a subgroup of patients with the Short Form 36 (SF-36). The CGQL was validated by determining its reliability, responsiveness, and validity as well as its correlation with the SF-36 score.

RESULTS
Postoperative quality of life as measured by SF-36 was excellent and compared well with published norms for the general U.S. population. The CGQL was found to be reliable, responsive, and valid, and there was a high correlation with the SF-36 scores. Using the CGQL, quality of life was shown to increase after the first 2 years after surgery, and there was no deterioration thereafter. The prevalence of perfect continence increased from 75.5% before surgery to 82.4% after surgery, and although this deteriorated somewhat >2 years after surgery, it was no worse than preoperative values. Ninety-eight percent of patients would recommend the surgery to others.

CONCLUSIONS
Long-term quality of life after ileal pouch surgery is excellent and the level of continence is satisfactory. This surgery is an excellent long-term option in patients requiring total proctocolectomy. The CGQL is a simple, valid, and reliable measure of quality of life after pelvic pouch surgery and may well be applicable in many other clinical conditions.


In 2007, the National Soybean Research Laboratory in collaboration with the Iowa Agricultural Statistical Service conducted a survey of the specialty soybean and corn activities in the State for the 2006 crop year. Out of 55,879 corn and soybean farmers in Iowa, 5,000 farmers were randomly selected and 2,369 farmers, responded, for a response rate of 47.4%. A key objective of the survey was to better understand, and then assess the state of differentiated or enhanced soybean and corn production in Iowa. The goal is to help farmers capture more value.


Ethical theory and principles can be applied and adapted for use in health care; individuals or groups may be making bioethical decisions regarding patient care in a number of settings. The current bioethical debates in the nephrology community and for ESRD patients center on issues of patient selection for treatment and criteria for the discontinuation of treatment after it has been initiated. This article defines bioethical theory and principles and their application to these two issues of patient care.


Each year, the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (FRBSF) travels on a fact-finding trip to Asia. These trips advance two of the Banks broad objectives: serving as a repository of expertise on economic, banking, and financial issues relating to the Pacific Rim and building ties with policymakers and economic officials there. The knowledge gained and the contacts developed during these trips provide valuable input to understanding trends affecting the Twelfth District, carrying out responsibilities in banking supervision, and conducting monetary policy and promoting the stability of financial markets. This Asia Focus is based on President Janet Yellens observations of developments in the Vietnamese banking sector made during her visit to the country in November 2007. This trip represents the first time Federal Reserve officials have visited Vietnam since normalization of bilateral relations in 1995.


We propose an analytical framework that optimizes the performance of various Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) schemes in wireless packet data systems. The optimization framework lends itself to maximizing the user throughput without assuming a specific HARQ scheme, a target packet error rate, and a mapping of signal-to-interference-noise ratios (SINR) into modulation and coding scheme (MCS) sets. Thus, a user selects an optimal amount of redundancy bits used for retransmissions, an optimal packet error rate, and an optimal SINR-MCS mapping such that the user throughput would be maximized. We show that there exists an optimal redundancy block size of incremental redundancy (IR) scheme when the number of retransmissions is limited, while as small as possible redundancy size is optimal when the number of retransmissions is unlimited. Our analytical results are verified through extensive simulations of the IEEE 802.16e system.


Protein kinase CK2 is an ubiquitous Ser/Thr kinase essential for cell growth. We have used the highly synchronizable tobacco BY-2 cell line to investigate whether CK2 activity and expression are regulated in a cell cycle phase-dependent manner in higher plants. Specific cDNA probes for tobacco CK2alpha and beta subunits, respectively, and polyclonal antibodies recognising alpha and beta subunits separately, were obtained to determine mRNA and protein levels of both subunits. Our results show that CK2 activity oscillates throughout the cell cycle, peaking at G1/S and M phases, due to a post-translational regulation of the tetrameric enzyme. Additional levels of control of CK2 expression operate in relation to the proliferative state of the cells, including differential accumulation of alpha and beta transcripts and post-transcriptional regulation of protein levels (beta subunit). Moreover, in vivo inhibition of CK2 activity corroborates the requirement of the functional CK2 to progress through the cell division cycle, and suggests that CK2 might play an important role at the G2/M checkpoint.


The convergent evolution of the human pygmy phenotype in tropical rainforests is widely assumed to reflect adaptation in response to the distinct ecological challenges of this habitat (e.g. high levels of heat and humidity, high pathogen load, low food availability, and dense forest structure), yet few precise adaptive benefits of this phenotype have been proposed. Here, we describe and test a biomechanical model of how the rainforest environment can alter gait kinematics such that short stature is advantageous in dense habitats. We hypothesized that environmental constraints on step length in rainforests alter walking mechanics such that taller individuals are expected to walk more slowly due to their inability to achieve preferred step lengths in the rainforest. We tested predictions from this model with experimental field data from two short-statured populations that regularly forage in the rainforest: the Batek of Peninsular Malaysia and the Tsimane of the Bolivian Amazon. In accordance with model expectations, we found stature-dependent constraints on step length in the rainforest and concomitant reductions in walking speed that are expected to compromise foraging efficiency. These results provide the first evidence that the human pygmy phenotype is beneficial in terms of locomotor performance and highlight the value of applying laboratory-derived biomechanical models to field settings for testing evolutionary hypotheses.


A new mineral species, markascherite (IMA2010-051), ideally Cu3(MoO4)(OH)4, has been found at Copper Creek, Pinal County, Arizona, U.S.A. The mineral is of secondary origin and is associated with brochantite, antlerite, lindgrenite, wulfenite, natrojarosite, and chalcanthite. Markascherite crystals are bladed (elongated along the b axis), up to 0.50 × 0.10 × 0.05 mm. The dominant forms are {001}, {100}, and {010}. Twinning is found with the twofold twin axis along [101]. The mineral is green, transparent with green streak and vitreous luster. It is brittle and has a Mohs hardness of 3.5~4; cleavage is perfect on {100} and no parting was observed. The calculated density is 4.216 g/cm3. Optically, markascherite is biaxial (–), with nα >1.8, nβ > 1.8, and nγ >1.8. The dispersion is strong (r > v). It is insoluble in water, acetone, or hydrochloric acid. An electron microprobe analysis yielded an empirical formula Cu2.89(Mo1.04O4)(OH)4. Markascherite, polymorphic with szenicsite, is monoclinic, with space group P21/m and unit-cell parameters a = 9.9904(6), b = 5.9934(4), c = 5.5255(4) Å, β = 97.428(4)°, and V = 328.04(4) Å3. Its structure is composed of three nonequivalent, markedly distorted Cu(O,OH)6 octahedra and one MoO4 tetrahedron. The Cu1 and Cu2 octahedra share edges to form brucite-type layers parallel to (100), whereas the Cu3 octahedra share edges with one another to form rutile-type chains parallel to the b axis. These layers and chains alternate along [100] and are interlinked together by both MoO4 tetrahedra and hydrogen bonds. Topologically, the structure of markascherite exhibits a remarkable resemblance to that of deloryite, Cu4(UO2)(MoO4)2(OH)6, given the coupled substitution of [2Cu2+ + 2(OH−)]2+ for [(U6+ + ) + 2O2–]2+. The Raman spectra of markascherite are compared with those of two other copper molybdate minerals szenicsite and lindgrenite.


Background Tumour-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) play a role in tumour progression; however, the spectrum of molecular mechanisms regulating EV secretion and cargo selection remain to be fully elucidated. We have reported that cavin-1 expression in prostate cancer PC3 cells reduced the abundance of a subset of EV proteins, concomitant with reduced xenograft tumour growth and metastasis. Methods We examined the functional outcomes and mechanisms of cavin-1 expression on PC3-derived EVs (PC3-EVs). Results PC3-EVs were internalized by osteoclast precursor RAW264.7 cells and primary human osteoblasts (hOBs) in vitro, stimulating osteoclastogenesis 37-fold and hOB proliferation 1.5-fold, respectively. Strikingly, EVs derived from cavin-1-expressing PC3 cells (cavin-1-PC3-EVs) failed to induce multinucleate osteoblasts or hOB proliferation. Cavin-1 was not detected in EVs, indicating an indirect mechanism of action. EV morphology, size and quantity were also not affected by cavin-1 expression, suggesting that cavin-1 modulated EV cargo recruitment rather than release. While cavin-1-EVs had no osteoclastogenic function, they were internalized by RAW264.7 cells but at a reduced efficiency compared to control EVs. EV surface proteins are required for internalization of PC3-EVs by RAW264.7 cells, as proteinase K treatment abolished uptake of both control and cavin-1-PC3-EVs. Removal of sialic acid modifications by neuraminidase treatment increased the amount of control PC3-EVs internalized by RAW264.7 cells, without affecting cavin-1-PC3-EVs. This suggests that cavin-1 expression altered the glycosylation modifications on PC3-EV surface. Finally, cavin-1 expression did not affect EV in vivo tissue targeting as both control and cavin-1-PC3-EVs were predominantly retained in the lung and bone 24 hours after injection into mice. Discussion Taken together, our results reveal a novel pathway for EV cargo sorting, and highlight the potential of utilizing cavin-1-mediated pathways to attenuate metastatic prostate cancer.


In the film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the character Violet Beauregarde swells up and becomes a very oversized blueberry after chewing a non-perfected strip of chewing gum. She is then rolled out of the room by three Oompa-Loompas and through the door with the assistance of her mother. This paper investigates what force would be required to start Violet rolling and finds that it is likely to require four times the amount of Oompa-Loompas shown in the film.


Since their discovery in the mid-20 th century, the terracottas of the Nok Culture in Central Nigeria, which represent the earliest large-scale sculptural tradition in Sub-Saharan Africa, have attracted attention well beyond specialist circles. Their cultural context, however, remained virtually unknown due to the lack of scientifically recorded, meaningful find conditions. Here we will describe an archaeological feature uncovered at the almost completely excavated Nok site of Pangwari, a settlement site located in the South of Kaduna State, which provided sufficient information to conclude that the terracotta sculptures had been deliberately destroyed and then deposited, emphasising the ritual aspect of early African figurative art.Similar observations were made at various other sites we had examined previously. But the terracottas found at Pangwari not only augmented our insights into the advanced stylistic development of the Nok sculptures, they also exhibited scenes of daily life like a relief of a dugout boat with two paddlers, or remarkable details like a marine shell on the head of a human figure – details indicating trans-regional trade and long-distance contacts. Other finds from Pangwari deepen our knowledge of therianthropic creatures among the terracottas of the Nok Culture.


Laser pointers originally designed for use during presentations are ubiquitous and are even sold as toys (such as pens or on key chains) in drug stores. Though reported as safe, the laser pointers still carry the risk of potential damage to the eye. We report a 16-year-old boy with bilateral retinal injury caused by 20-30 seconds of exposure to a laser pointing-device. Immediately thereafter, vision was blurred bilaterally and he noted a central red scotoma in each eye. Symptoms resolved spontaneously within 2 days but the retinal scars remained all during the 10 months of follow-up. It is clear from our report and 3 other publications that retinal damage can develop from misusing laser pointers. Laser hazards and safety should be stressed for the general public. We recommend that laser-pointers should not be available as toys to children and teenagers.


Background: Henoch–Schonlein purpura (HSP) is the most common vasculitis seen in children that rarely involve central nervous system (CNS) (0.65%–8%). Patients with CNS vasculitis may present with symptoms such as headache, seizures, focal neurological deficit, or behavior abnormalities. We describe a case of HSP where the patient presented with developmental delay along with skin rash and renal involvement. Clinical Description: A 15-month-old boy presented with a history of developmental delay and skin rashes for the past 2 months. There was no significant antenatal or birth history. At the age of 15 months, the child could not sit without support, could not transfer objects from one hand to other, could only speak bisyllables, and could not wave "bye-bye." On examination, the patient had normal vitals with equal volume peripheral pulses and normal blood pressure in all four limbs. Urine examination showed microscopic hematuria, and kidney functions were mildly deranged. Skin biopsy showed immunoglobulin A vasculitis. Magnetic resonance imaging brain was done which revealed multifocal areas of altered signal intensity in periventricular deep white matter in bilateral frontal and parieto-occipital lobes, appearing hyperintense on T2-weighted and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery sequences, showing evidence of diffusion restriction, suggestive of areas of acute ischemia. The findings were consistent with manifestations of CNS vasculitis. Management: The patient was managed conservatively and advised physiotherapy and follow-up for developmental delay. Conclusion: HSP can rarely involve CNS, however, developmental delay in HSP has never been reported before.


In this paper the feasibility of mode-division multiplexing (MDM) for implementing multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radio-over-fiber (RoF) distributed antenna systems (DAS) is experimentally demonstrated, where the MIMO algorithm is able to reconstruct the data signals by overcoming distortion and crosstalk in both the free-space RF and optical fiber channels. This is achieved through RF characterization of an MDM RoF link, which is experimentally demonstrated to be capable of supporting at least 4 × 4 MIMO with 6 GHz channels over long lengths of MMF (2 km compared to ~300 m typically found in MMF-based RoF DASs) and under tight fiber bending conditions (bend radius as low as 7.6 mm), which are commonly encountered in in-building fiber installations. First, experimental RF measurements are performed over a 2 km section of OM2 fiber, mode-multiplexed using a spatial light modulator (SLM) based MUX/DEMUX system, and it is shown to offer an RF condition number of <;14 dB for up to 4 × 4 MIMO with 6 GHz channels, sufficient to enable good performance for⊣ most modern wireless protocols. Next, the effect of fiber curvature on RF performance is experimentally analysed using a 10 m section of OM3 fiber. It is seen that with a bend radius as low as 7.2 mm, a condition number of ~10 dB can be achieved for up to a 6 × 6 MIMO system with 6 GHz channels. Although an SLM-based MUX/DEMUX is used here, condition number is not dependent on the exact mode-launching system used provided that orthogonal combinations of modes are excited, which is true of most MDM systems. It is therefore concluded that the RF characterization presented here demonstrates by proof-of-principle the feasibility of graded-index) MMF to support at least 4 × 4 MIMO with broadband channels via MDM over lengths up to 2 km and with fiber bend radii as low as 7.2 mm.


During the course of recent work (6) on the zeros of the Bessel functions Jn(x) and Yn(x), it became evident that the theory of the asymptotic expansion of Bessel functions whose arguments and orders are of comparable magnitudes was incomplete. The existing expansions for large orders are those of Debye and Meissel, detailed derivations of both of which are given by Watson ((8), pp. 237–48).


The current study was designed to show the role of aqueous crude extracts against the Giardia lamblia. The study used 20 rats (Adult male) that distributed into four groups; the control group. Second group rat infected with (1X103 cell/ ml) G. lamblia. The third group infected rat was treated with (100mg/ml) aqueous extract for four weeks. The fourth group infected rat was treated with (250mg/ml) aqueous extract for four weeks. The results show a highly significant elevate (P < 0.05) in levels of MDA with a significant (P < 0.05) reduction in levels of catalase in infected rats compared with the control group. The results of treated rats show non-significant (P < 0.05) changes in all parameters compare with the control group when using aqueous crude extracts. About the histological changes, in the second group, kidney sections show damage glomerulus, slough endothelial of tubules, lymphocytes infiltration, thickening wall of blood vessels, and fibroblast. In treated groups (100mg & 250mg), show semi-normal glomerulus and urinary tubules. So, an aqueous extract of E. microtheca show a high efficacy role against G. lamblia.


The core intent of this research paper was to understand the universality of the value system practiced by commercial banks, the effectiveness of loans, equality in banking services and the reliability of the products offered with respect to ethical banking in Kenya. This research forms a framework for ethical banking in the industry by recommending concrete measures on the cases of increasing financial slavery, indiscriminate banking, and unethical conduct. A major finding was found to be that in order to create a formidable ethical banking in Kenya, commercial banks have to be at the fore front of embracing and employing ethical considerations in their banking practices. This study is focused on the ethical considerations in banking industry in Kenya. Taken as a whole, our findings suggest that, there is need to embrace ethical values by commercial banks in creating an ethically inclined banking environment.


Canada has positioned itself as a destination for thousands of international students from all over the world. Arguably, by offering a relatively affordable education, and an inclusive society. Over the past two decades, the number of international students to Canada has not just increased, but also become more diverse by places of birth, age, marital status, education, and prior occupation. Even though many international students come to Canada when they are single young adults, some arrive with their families leaving behind professional careers back home. Using a qualitative approach, this research explores the motivations that prompt Mexican professionals to come to Canada as international students with their families. The research findings demonstrate that high levels of insecurity in Mexico was the number one push factor that motivated participants to make the decision to immigrate. Furthermore, for many this represents a significant financial investment that can require sacrifices both before and after immigrating.

Key words: Mexico; international students; insecurity; immigration; professionals


Chloasma is an acquired, chronic hypermelanosis that remains difficult to improvement. The combination of collagen peptide (CP), soy peptide (SP) and an aqueous extract of Chrysanthemum morifolium (AECM) has been proven to have antioxidant and anti-melanogenesis activity in vitro and in an animal model. In this study, we evaluated the efficacy of the combination versus a control as an oral intervention for chloasma by a non-invasive clinical method. Sixty-two subjects were recruited and randomly assigned to two groups: test group and control group. The test group was administered the combination every day for 60 days according to the manufacturer's instructions. Two types of methods — an instrument-based measurement and clinical grading — were conducted at each time point to evaluate the improvement in the chloasma. The instrumental results revealed a significant decrease in skin yellowness at 60 days compared with the control group, and the clinical-grading results were in good agreement. Additionally, after administration of the combination, skin hydration exhibited an increasing trend compared with the control group. No side effects were observed during the study. The combination was effective in reducing the hyperpigmentation of subjects with chloasma. The combination oral intake might prevent chloasma from worsening.


Purpose: Paediatric infectious endophthalmitis is a serious sightthreatening disease for children. The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence, aetiology, microbiological spectrum, management, and visual outcomes of infectious endophthalmitis in children referred to the Department of Ophthalmology, Hospital Kuala Lumpur, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.Study design: Retrospective study.Methods: The medical records of all patients under 18 years of age with histories of endophthalmitis treated at Hospital Kuala Lumpur from January 2009 to December 2018 were reviewed. The clinical characteristics, aetiology, microbiological spectrum, management, as well as the visual outcomes were analysed.Results: A total of 23 children were identified, with a mean age of 3.15 (ranging from 20 days to 8 years of age). Previous ocular surgery (47.8%) and ocular trauma (30.4%) were the most common causes of endophthalmitis. Overall, eight (38.1%) cases with positive cultures were identified. The most commonly identified organism was Staphylococcus sp. comprising 50% of the isolates. Moreover, five isolates (62.5%) were gram-positive organisms and three isolates (37.5%) were gram-negative organisms. The final visual outcome was 20/200 or better in one eye (4.3 %), hand movement in two eyes (8.7%), light perception in five eyes (21.7%), and no light perception in 13 eyes (56.5%). The visual outcome was not available for two patients (8.7%).Conclusions: Previous ocular surgery and penetrating ocular trauma are the most frequent causes of paediatric endophthalmitis in our centre. Staphylococcus sp. was the most commonly identified organism in paediatric endophthalmitis. In this study, despite aggressive management with intravitreal antibiotics and vitrectomy, the visual prognosis was found to be generally poor.


The purpose of this research was to show that the performance of a task while anticipating a performance evaluation can stimulate either a positive or negative sentiment and that the direction of the sentiment depends upon the protective or acquisitive self-presentational orientation of the evaluatee. This research used laboratory experimental design to test the hypothesis. Fifty three accounting students addressed a comprehensive accounting problem after being told that the results of their performance would be reviewed by accounting department committee. Self-presentational orientations within the subjects were induced by altering the performance standard level against which the evaluators would judge each subject's work. The results supported the hypothesis that, given a desire to impress the evaluators, individuals who perform a task for acquisitive purposes will be more willing to continue to participate in the task than their protective counterparts. However, there is one of hypothesis that could not be confirmed by this research that is the self presentational motivation doesn't moderate the relationship of self presentational orientation and willingness to perform.


We relocated the mainshock and its aftershocks of the 1944 Tonankai earthquake (M 7.9) using the modified joint hypocenter determination (MJHD) method in order to obtain their accurate hypocenters and to identify the fault plane of the mainshock. We used both Pand S-wave initial arrival times at stations worldwide reported by the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) and International Seismological Summary (ISS). We confirmed by relocated hypocenters that the mainshock and many direct aftershocks had occurred along the plate boundary between the Eurasian and Philippine Sea plates. We also confirmed that the eastern end of the aftershock area reached the Tenryu River, where induced shallow crustal earthquakes also occurred. The aftershocks south of Shionomisaki and along the SE coast of the Kii Peninsula are crustal earthquakes induced by the mainshock.


In Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde the main protagonists take a love potion, which has various side effects and possibly causes Isolde's death. Gunther Weitz argues that the symptoms fit with severe anticholinergic syndrome

In the opera Tristan und Isolde Richard Wagner reports the poisoning of Tristan and Isolde by a "love potion." Shortly after ingestion of the potion, the protagonists declare their love, and both die during the opera. The opera has been extensively interpreted by psychoanalysts1–3 and musicologists,4–6 but, although at least Isolde's death remains unexplained and might be due to the potion, the medical profession has not yet analysed the case. I present evidence to suggest that the lovers were affected by a severe anticholinergic syndrome and that this is the most likely cause of Isolde's death.

The story of Tristan and Isolde (Iseult), who fell in immortal love after drinking a magic potion, originated in the 6th century and was told in England, Ireland, and the north of France. It first appeared in writing in the 12th century, and Wagner used as his source the poetry of Gottfried von Strassburg, from around 1210.7 Although Strassburg was familiar with alchemy,8 he did not report the side effects of the love potion. Wagner's detailed description of the symptoms suffered by the protagonists may indicate his attention to possible ingredients.

Tristan, nephew of King Marke and knight of the Cornish court, and Isolde, princess of Ireland and King Marke's bride, try to commit suicide together by drinking poison which, however, turns out to be a …


A novel fault-tolerant control system design technique has been proposed in this paper, which blends the multiple-model principle with the unavoidable performance degradation due to faults in actuators, sensors or system dynamics. The number of models employed depends on the characteristics of the system, the nature of the failures considered, and the physical limits of system variables. The achievable performance under various component failures are represented in the form of reference models, known as performance reduced reference models. These models are used to synthesize a set of controllers. Under a specific fault condition, proper controller and revised control system command input are selected automatically to achieve desired performance. A simulation example of an aircraft subject to different type of failures has been used to illustrate the design process and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.


Host–guest interactions between the aromatic molecules benzene, toluene, aniline and nitrobenzene and the redox-active TCNQ-based metal–organic framework (MOF), Fe(TCNQ)(4,4′-bpy) (1) (TCNQ = 7,7,8,8-tetracyanoquinodimethane), have been found to modulate spontaneous magnetization behaviours at low temperatures. An analogous MOF, Mn(TCNQ)(4,4′-bpy) (2) with isotropic Mn(II) ions as well as the two-dimensional compound Fe(TCNQ)(DMF)2·2DMF (3·2DMF), were also prepared as models for studying the effects of single-ion magnetic anisotropy and structural distortion on spin canting. The results indicate guest-dependent long range magnetic ordering occurs at low temperatures, which correlates with the electrostatic and steric effects of the incorporated aromatic guests.


Human CD8+ CTL recognize peptides bound to class I MHC molecules on the surface of melanoma cells. Several peptides derived from melanocyte lineage-specific proteins have been identified as epitopes for HLA-A2 restricted melanoma-reactive CTL. Because less than half of melanoma patients express HLA-A2, it is important to identify CTL epitopes restricted by other common MHC molecules including HLA-A1 and -A3. We have generated HLA-A3-restricted human CTL that recognize one or more shared melanoma Ags. All of the melanomas recognized by one of these CTL lines express Pmel-17/gp100, and those that fail to express this Ag are not lysed. This CTL line also specifically recognizes the lymphoblastoid line C1R-A3 following infection with a recombinant vaccinia encoding the melanocyte lineage-specific protein Pmel-17/gp100. Thus, at least one Pmel-17/ gp100 peptide is an epitope for this CTL line. We have identified ALLAVGATK (Pmel-17/gp100 residues 17-25) as an epitope for this CTL line and have shown that it is naturally processed and presented by HLA-A3 on melanoma cells. A second HLA-A3-restricted melanoma-reactive CTL line recognizes at least one additional shared epitope. These findings suggest that cellular immune responses directed against multiple shared melanoma epitopes exist in the 20 to 25% of melanoma patients who express HLA-A3. In addition, immunotherapy directed against Pmel-17/gp100 and other shared melanoma Ags may be useful in a large subset of these patients.


Anesthesia Information Management Systems (AIMSs) have existed for many decades. However, how to turn patient records into strategic information to improve the anesthesia process is still a research challenge. We did not find systems that use data from previous procedures for issuing alerts. This data can prevent errors during procedures and aid on medical staff evaluation. We propose SaneWatch, an alert system guided by the medical history of patients. SaneWatch uses configurable rules to continuously review the patient's history and automatically generate an anesthesia profile. This dynamic profile allows the emission of strategic alerts during the anesthesia procedures. We have implemented and integrated the system in an AIMS that has been used the past four years by more than 40 anesthesiologists in several hospitals in the city of Porto Alegre in southern Brazil. We applied the integrated system in a practical experiment. Twenty doctors tried it and filled out a questionnaire based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). An overall strong agreement of 96% was obtained in perceived usefulness acceptance assessment. In addition, 86% of users indicated that the system was easy to use. The results were encouraging and demonstrate the potential for implementing SaneWatch in anesthesia procedures. However, 12% of doctors disagreed with regard to ease of use, showing that the system needs improvements in interface related aspects.


Background and Purpose— Previous studies suggest that dynamic autoregulation in the posterior cerebral artery (PCA) is less efficient compared to the middle cerebral artery (MCA). We examined the role of cerebral vasodilation caused by metabolic activation (ie, visual stimulus) on autoregulatory characteristics in the 2 vascular territories. Methods— Blood flow velocity in the PCA and MCA and mean arterial pressure were measured continuously in 45 healthy volunteers (62±3 years) while seated with eyes open. Additional 20 subjects (60±5 years) were examined with eyes closed and open. Autoregulation was assessed using transfer function gains in both the PCA and MCA territories in the low (0.03–0.07 Hz), high (0.07–0.15 Hz), and cardiac (≈1 Hz) frequency ranges. Results— With eyes open, gains were significantly higher in the PCA compared to the MCA in the low (PCA: 1.41±0.09 vs MCA: 1.18±0.07; P=0.003) and high (PCA: 2.06±0.12 vs MCA: 1.61±0.08; P=0.0001) frequencies. Opening eyes increased blood flow velocity and reduced cerebrovascular resistance index in the PCA but not in MCA. This vasodilation in the PCA was associated with increased gain in the low (autoregulatory) frequency, whereas MCA gain did not change (PCA: 0.89±0.14 vs 1.31±0.17, MCA: 1.24±0.16 vs 1.16±0.11; P=0.02). Conclusions— Dilation of the PCA territory during visual cortex activation resulted in increased PCA transfer function gain without changing MCA gain. Thus, impaired autoregulation in the PCA reported in previous literature is likely the result of metabolic vasodilation and not an inherent difference in the autoregulatory characteristics of the posterior circulation.


Trust is a significant component of social capital. The notion is also important in economics, and has been investigated by psychologists and sociologists, too. The findings of the latter disciplines may and should be useful not only in economics but also in anthropology and metaphysics, which are able to provide answers to the fundamental questions about the roots of human honesty, confidence and willingness to help. Behind this question there is another one: what is the human Self, which is able to trust in and to provide the necessary support to the Other if needed, and how is it formed? The author of the article answers these questions with reference to the ideas of two eminent contemporary thinkers, Emmanuel Levinas (1906–1995) and Antoni Kepinski (1918–1972). Capturing the consistencies, similarities and differences between Kempinski's description of the situation of a person with schizophrenia and the anthropological vision of Levinas' philosophy is possible thanks to a scheme composed of three elements: the Self, the border, and the space-time order and hierarchy of values. If the Other is perceived as someone responsible for the Self, then it gives birth to trust of the Self in the Other, i.e. a strong conviction that the Other will not fail and is utterly honest with regard to the Self. Such a conviction is the foundation on which the Self builds a relationship with the Other. In this way, social capital, which is vital for the further development of society, is created. The capital is interfused by trust being the variable without which it is impossible to explain many economic phenomena.


The electronic properties and chemical bonding of the C6H6:LnO (Bz:LnO) adducts have been investigated by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Two types (I and II) of Bz:LnO adducts are formed upon trapping LnO by the benzene molecule. In type I, the benzene molecule is coordinated to the Ln atom in a η6-coordination mode with the LnO perpendicular to the ring center, while in type II the LnO is inclined with respect to the ring plane. In type II adducts, the benzene molecule undergoes significant structural distortions adopting a boat conformation facing the Ln atom of LnO. In the bending conformation of benzene, the bond length equalization is lifted up with the 1,2- and 4,5-double bonds shortened by 0.01 A with respect to the CC double bond in the "free" benzene molecule while the remaining bonds are lengthened by about 0.04 A, thus coordinated benzene exhibits a 1,4-diene type π-localization within the ring. The effect of adduct formation on the structural, spectroscopic, and magnetotropic properties of the coordinated benzene have been explored using electronic structure computational techniques. The main features of the Time Dependent DFT (TD-DFT) simulated absorption spectra of the LnOs and C6H6:LnO adducts are analyzed and assignments of the electronic transitions are given. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


A single Leptospira strain (designated Bejo-Iso9(T)) was isolated from a soil sample taken in Johor, Malaysia. The isolate showed motility and morphology typical of the genus Leptospira under dark-field microscopy. Cells were found to be 10-13 microm in length and 0.2 microm in diameter, with a wavelength of 0.5 microm and an amplitude of approximately 0.2 microm. Phenotypically, strain Bejo-Iso9(T) grew in Ellinghausen-McCullough-Johnson-Harris medium at 13, 30 and 37 degrees C, and also in the presence of 8-azaguanine. Serologically, strain Bejo-Iso9(T) produced titres towards several members of the Tarassovi serogroup, but was found to be serologically unique by cross-agglutinin absorption test and thus represented a novel serovar. The proposed name for this serovar is Malaysia. Phylogenetic analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences placed this novel strain within the radiation of the genus Leptospira, with sequence similarities within the range 90.4-99.5% with respect to recognized Leptospira species. DNA-DNA hybridization against the three most closely related Leptospira species was used to confirm the results of the 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis. The G+C content of the genome of strain Bejo-Iso9(T) was 36.2 mol%. On the basis of phenotypic, serological and phylogenetic data, strain Bejo-Iso9(T) represents a novel species of the genus Leptospira, for which the name Leptospira kmetyi sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is Bejo-Iso9(T) (=WHO LT1101(T)=KIT Bejo-Iso9(T)).


This thesis examines the relationship between consumer culture and efforts to introduce legislation to regulate the production and labeling of American food products during the decades in the United States known as the Progressive Era. As food became increasingly mass-produced, consumer anxiety about contamination grew. Ultimately the federal government passed the Pure Food, Drink, and Drug Act in 1906 to ensure that American-made food items were produced in a hygienic manner and properly labeled. Using nostalgic modernism (characterized by scholars as a deeply-rooted impulse that causes
Americans to simultaneously embrace and resist change) as a framework, my research demonstrates that the wide promotion of so-called "pure food" in the years both before and after the passing of this legislation reflects the pervasive ambivalence to modernity emblematic of this period. This project will demonstrate how food advertising reflected wider anxieties about a nation being reshaped by urbanization, industrialization, and corporate capitalism.